Naturally, the hacks and apparatchiks wish to suck the life out of the movement by delivering movement participants to the re-elect Obama Campaign. Kevin Gosztola, in another superb article on the movement, its effects and its significance, recently made the following observations:
The Occupy Wall Street movement has energy and momentum, which is exactly what President Barack Obama needs to get re-elected. It has people and media attention, which is why the organizers behind the “Take Back the American Dream” conference made a calculation to adjust messaging and include talk about Occupy Wall Street. They did this because the conference was to be about producing a movement that could counter the Tea Party and now, as Van Jones explained to attendees, a movement that could be a counter-balance to the Tea Party had sprouted. They acted as if the people in the streets were for their vision and agenda and talked about how those people showed it was time to build a “Rebuild the American Dream” movement to rival the Tea Party from the left. They even went to the steps of Capitol Hill for a two hour rally to “send a message” to Congress.
Now, leaders who are working on the Obama 2012 re-election campaign or progressive groups that will be canvassing door-to-door to convince people to not abandon Obama are looking to tap in to Occupy Wall Street’s energy. The country is about to see, as Salon’s Joan Walsh suggests, what happens when a movement without leaders meets leaders without a movement. The segment MSNBC host Ed Schultz did on October 5 indicates liberals, whom the Democratic Party counts on to deliver votes, will be working to contain this movement and make it seem these are really frustrated Obama supporters.
I would wager that every sound thinking member of the Occupy Movement would consider Barack Obama to be one of their key political enemies. And, Obama’s record in office easily justifies considering him thusly.
Gosztola eventually and rightly identifies:
…two immediate and glaring issues: (1) Will this movement allow itself to be damaged by liberal groups or Democrats who seek to divert it into campaigns for 2012 elections? Will it fight to hold on to its reputation as a group that is committed to a much grander vision for society than electing new people to positions in a representative democracy that no longer responds to the will of the people? And, (2) do Democratic Party operatives even want to use the energy of Occupy Wall Street to ensure Obama’s re-election.
He then concludes by offering what amounts to his answer to these questions:
What should the Occupy Wall Street organizers do? They should continue on the path they were on prior to all the labor and Democratic Party support. They should put the movement first and not bow to any Democratic Party or liberal organization operatives who seek to channel the movement into electoral politics or compel the movement to lower its sights. It should work to maintain a level of discipline and make sure it establishes what it is not. It should continue to aim for the impossible and remember that they have earned their power because they have occupied the park and stood their ground in the face of a media blackout, police brutality and contemptuous criticisms.
The occupiers did not come together to be the Tea Party of the left. They came together to take on corporate power and address problems that impact Americans who are conservative and liberal, left wing and right wing. And, to continue to grow as a movement that challenges the influence of corporations, special interests and the top 1% in government, they need to make clear this is not about building a better Democratic Party. This is about the war on poor, working class and middle class Americans, the constant attacks on unions and how Americans are begin to have influence over their government so the assaults on poor and working Americans come to an end.
Let there be no mistake about this point: The Occupy Movement now has the political initiative in this country. Today, it alone expresses the hopes and fears many Americans feel. This capacity provides the movement with its growing power, and it poses a real threat to the Duopoly Party System in the United States. The Occupy Movement is alive. Thus the Democratic Party hacks and appartchiks merely want to use the movement in order to affirm the criminal and regressive Obama regime. The movement has no future in the Democratic Party. What, then, is its future? To grow. To push back. To defend civil society. To defend the well-being of the “lesser people.”
All Tied Up and Nowhere to Go 
Steve Fraser discusses Occupy Wall Street, its historical precedents and its current significance
10.13.2011 3 Comments
Writing for TomDispatch, Steve Fraser, a historian of labor and Wall Street as well as a publisher of important books, recently provided his readers with a capsule history of America’s resistance to American finance capital. His article is worth reading.
Fraser begins by asserting that:
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Filed under Commentary Tagged with Antipolitics, Bernard Harcourt, Finance Capital, George McGovern, Herbert Marcuse, Leftwing Populism, Manhattan, MOTU Game, New York Stock Exchange, Occupy Wall Street, Political Disobedience, Popular Contention, Richard Nixon, Steve Fraser, The Great Refusal, Wall Street, Zuccotti Park